Well, it’s a sign that the economic system is not working for most people. Young people don’t see a path to a happy future – never mind the ability to afford to have children. The US doesn’t have anything resembling a guaranteed living wage, and there is no helping hand to assist parents who actually want to raise their children. The US doesn’t even have guaranteed parental leave. And a parent doesn’t have many options when it comes to raising a young child. Not only is there no guaranteed free childcare so parents can get an education or job training or work – child care is absurdly-expensive.
It’s just too expensive to have kids.
I don’t know what this will mean for the economy and the country moving forward. But I’m more interested in dissecting what it means when a society has made it so only the wealthy can have kids, and the rest have no choice whether or not to participate in the rather human activity of having and raising children.